Number of children offered a place at first preference secondary school at an all-time high

Families applying for their child’s secondary school place for September 2021 are receiving their offers today (1 March).

The number of children who have been offered their first preference school is the highest it has been in Leeds at 7942 (7842 last year).  The number of children receiving one of their 5 preferences has risen to 9295 (9085 last year).

Leeds City Council has made 9892 year seven offers this year, an increase of 351 from last year.

Families are recommended to always include the school where they receive catchment or nearest priority as one of their preferences and to make sure they use all five preferences to get the best chance of being offered a preferred school.

Councillor Jonathan Pryor, Leeds City Council’s executive member for Learning, Skills and Employment said:

“I am pleased that we have been able to increase the number of young people allocated their first preference school, although it is important to recognise that this continues to be a challenge to achieve as pupil numbers rise. This year, there continues to be a significant pressure for school places in some areas of the city and we recognise not all parents will have got the outcome they wanted today. We have worked hard to increase the amount of secondary provision across the city, including supporting the opening of two new secondary schools in Leeds this September in order to ensure Leeds is the best city to live and grow up in.”

Parents need to accept their offer of a school place as soon as possible by contacting the school directly.  Parents who wish to decline their offer need to make sure they have another offer, or a plan for how their child will receive education, first. They can also request to be added to the waiting lists at schools where they have not been offered a place and should do this by the 15 March 2021 to be included in the first allocation of places from the waiting lists where any vacancies have arisen. If parents wish to appeal, the first deadline is 29 March 2021. Information on this can be found at www.leeds.gov.uk/offerday 

Notes:

7942 children were given their 1^st preference which is 80%.

842 children were given their 2^nd preference which is 8.5%

312 children were given their 3^rd preference which is 3%.

128 children were given their 4^th preference which is 1%.

71 children were given their 5^th preference which is <1%